Friday, May 09, 2008
Dizzy's Big Story
Just as a follow up to the last post and Suzanne Moore's inane comments at the EI event about blogs not breaking any stories... Perhaps she should read THIS post from Dizzy which uncovers yet more data security breaches in the Department for Work & Pensions. A day later the MSM in the form of Sky News are catching up with it HERE. I wonder if this could be Dizzy's big breakthrough. He deserves it to be. No blogger is better at this sort of forensic analysis. Why on earth hasn't a newspaper signed him up yet?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
17 comments:
Don't you think you are belittling blogs rather by suggesting that going to work for a newspaper is a promotion?
I do understand what you mean, but that wasn't my intention. Newspapers and other media are in the business of talent spotting. Dizzy is a rare talent and all I was saying is that I am susprised no one has snapped him up. I am sure that like me he has bills to pay!
Blogger breaks ONE WHOLE STORY. Wow. That'll shut the MSM up.
It's the latest in a long line from him. And the point is not to shut the MSM up. But it does piss me off when so many of the elitist commentariat tar all bloggers with the same brush, as they did at the EI seminar (with the exception of Danny F and Julia Hobsbawm). I am glad I didn't go. My blood pressure would have been too high.
I just noticed Dizzy is an Evertonian. Oh dear.
I think Dizzy has a proper job too Iain ;-)
I agree though, great blogging!
It's probably all the spelling errors that puts them off :)
But I have to agree, I thought his post yesterday about food policy was excellent
this blogpost made headlines in the Irish newspapers...
just one example from this week.
"Blogger breaks ONE WHOLE STORY. Wow. That'll shut the MSM up."
Is that you, Rupert Murdoch?
Congrats to Dizzy!
The reason no paper has signed good Dizzy up is because he would, in Dizzy's own way, tell them to **** off!
Thanks for the kind words Iain old stick.
Re: tom fd. They're not spelling errors, they're typos, because I type at about 95 words per minute and don't proof read properly. It's all helped along by mild dyslexia which results in me typing th wrong word sometimes. e.g. I have a tendency to type walk instead of work and vice versa. Most hacks probably do it too, that's why they have subs.
A bit of chippiness about the legitimacy of the blogosphere vis a vis the straight press.
Isn't it more politic to just say nothing when there is a critical and disparaging commment? To do otherwise comes across as childish.
No one can argue with good stories and perceptive comment. Let blogs speak for themselves.
To respond in kind to Suzanne Moore sounds like you care.
She might get a spot in the Mail on Sunday but the curious thing is that in spite of the iconoclastic position she says she was hired to write I cannot recall anything she's said to justify her billing.
PS. I would have to read at least one of her articles to come to the conclusion in the last sentence.
Makes you wonder what has happened to the Government Data Network which was built to allow departments to communicate electronically in the 1990's!
Mark Lawson, Guardian G2 8 May, doesn't like bloggers on election nights. A paragraph starting:
'Interactivity is a (sic) fashionable, but...'
ain't going to end well.
Stepehn Metcalfe the Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate for South Basildon & East Thurrock was highlighting lax security of DWP data last November:-
http://www.vote4metcalfe.com/DataProt.html
More must be done to protect our data!
People claiming Social Security Benefits in Essex are seriously at risk of having their confidential details ending up in the hands of identity fraudsters because of a systemic security failure that is probably endemic across Government Departments up and down the country claims Stephen Metcalfe, Prospective Conservative Member of Parliament for South Basildon & East Thurrock.
Stephen Metcalfe explained: “Local Councils have direct computer access to social security records to prevent and detect fraud when processing Housing benefit and Council Tax benefit claims. When the computer link isn’t working the Benefits Agency at Basildon will post, by recorded delivery, a computer disc containing highly confidential records of people claiming Social Security benefits, their full names and addresses, dates of birth, national insurance numbers and type of benefit they are claiming.”
“The loss of 2 discs containing child benefit details of 25 million people was not a one off incident; it would appear to be a systemic security failure endemic amongst Government Departments to post computer discs containing vast amounts of private and confidential data through the post. Benefits Agency offices up and down the country could be posting hundreds, if not thousands of these discs to councils every year.”
“The Benefits Agency carries out no security checks to ensure that these discs are destroyed after they have been used for the purpose intended. The discs could end up forgotten and gathering dust in a council filing cabinet or desk drawer. Nobody would know if they went missing and fell into the wrong hands.”
Stephen Metcalfe added, “It makes a mockery of the Data Protection Act. It’s a serious breach in security and a weak link in keeping peoples details confidential”
Posted 22/11/07
"Why on earth hasn't a newspaper signed him up yet?"
Probably because their legal department couldn't afford the cost of clearing up after such a loose cannon. Publishing ex-directory phone numbers and all that; he'd be a nightmare.
And an endorsement from yourself is hardly a bonus. After all, you seem to rate Nadine "I don't do science or apologies" Dorries' blog highly, which says a lot about the pair of you.
"Why on earth hasn't a newspaper signed him up yet?"
Hmm... perhaps because there's already a hefty backlog of right wing, BBC-hating, rabid-nutter-type writers available. I think it's like the EU wine lake of old.
"A Tory mountain"..? Nice image.
Also - possibly - because Dizzy's not that 'attractive' a writer compared to, say, Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Littlejohn or John Gaunt, who can make you laugh, if only at them.
But most likely they have simply just not noticed him because, other than being a screaming, whirling dervish, shouting insults, accusations and obscenities, he's really not that good a writer...
Carl Eve
Post a Comment